I’ve always loved the idea of talking to people abroad. This was the first thing I did when I first sat to a computer connected to the internet. I believe this passion stems from of all those stories I used to hear about amateur radio operators when I was a kid. They were fantastic, and I can’t thank the internet enough for making that a reality to nearly everyone on the globe.

Nowadays, reaching out to strangers long-distance is something we totally take for granted. But there’s a charm in monitoring the radio waves above our heads ourselves which is unparalleled, and the internet is never going to make up for that. I’m just discovering the world of amateur radio and I’m kinda in awe. It’s too. Damn. Cool.

For the moment, I’m just listening, and experimenting with the limits of “cheap.” I wanna be able to understand all the science involved and tweak every technical aspect of my rig before pouring money into such a hobby. I do believe there’s a greater deal of merit in achieving more with less.

For now, I’m playing with a RTL-SDR dongle, a laptop running only free software, and a very long wire attached to a tree. I’m monitoring morse and FT8 transmissions in the 40-m band to see from how far I can hear. Result: reasonably far!